The Unknown Empathy
by skydog91
Summary: Andrea's torture is on the horizon, will she escape or will she conquer the governor?
1. Desperation Within This Hell

The Unknown Empathy

Chapter 1: Desperation Within This Hell

The inclement moment that Andrea had been waiting for was now here, the governor had captured her from fleeing. _How am I going to escape such a malevolent man? _She thought to herself as she glanced over at his maliciously sharpened tools. Andrea knew that the governor's disdain for her was increasing and she knew that she couldn't force herself from the now tightened straps of the execution chair. _Who in the hell will want to rescue my weak ass?_ She began to wonder as anxiety started to kick in.

Andrea began nudging on the straps to try to break them free, the door nearby creaked open. The governor walked in with a hacksaw for his first step of execution. Andrea began to panic, and the governor could tell this and quickly remarked. "You'll be fine my sweet Andrea, it'll only hurt for a little bit", as he walked over and began stroking her hair.

The governor began to give instructions "Okay beautiful, you're going to do as I say. I need you to hold your right hand out with your wrist veins facing my direction." Andrea did as he said losing all hope for a saint. The governor lowered the hacksaw about five inches from her right hand's veins and started to begin to cut through some flesh, as Andrea screamed in terror. _Shock began to kick in._

"Oh dear Andrea, wake up my sweetie pie" The governor said smacking her in the face. Andrea now starting to realize her halfway decapitated arm, exclaimed "You're a DEMON!" as she swung her left arm as it caused a minor slap across his face. "Listen here bitch, you swing at me one more time and I will do a lot worse to you!" The governor said with a glare on his face. Andrea, not afraid of him, exclaimed "Like what, are you going to cut my other arm off? Am I going to be your pet human like Michonne's walkers?" The governor replied, "I'll take it up a notch; it's called the _Brazen Bull_." Andrea having studied some medieval history in her past spoke up saying. "Really you're going to boil me alive, after all I've done for you?"  
_How could any man even do this to a woman? _Andrea began to wonder as she began to feel disparity kicking in. _How could no one at the prison come save me?_

A few minutes passed as the two stared immensely at each other. "Okay I think your ready for stage two" "Stage two?" as they conversed a little bit more about her execution. "I am going to slice open each of your fingers up to your finger tips, rip them open and feed them to the townspeople at the local cafe, trust me they won't even know it's human flesh!" Andrea was disgusted at how horrifying this man was getting and was hoping that some sort of religious being existed to send some sort of savior down to her to protect her from such tragedy. The governor walked away to prepare the tools.

_A whisper from the corner broke the now silent room, "Hey Andrea"._ Andrea turned her head to see Ben standing with a knife. He quickly ran over to the nineteenth century dentist chair to cut her free. "Ben, why are you here? Where's your father? Does he know you came?" Andrea began to say as she felt an anxiety attack begin to linger. "No he doesn't know, but that doesn't matter at this time ma'am. I want to help you and free you. I heard you screaming and had to come here to see what was up" Ben said, looking very courageous. Footsteps began to come from the down the hall, finally reaching the steel door, Ben began to rush Andrea to the escape route. Ben gave Andrea a nice shove through a tight, yet nicely constructed entrance space that she assumed Ben had created to get to the room. Ben began to make his way through, but before he knew it a hand was grabbing his shirt. "You're not going anywhere; I guess you want to take stage two of Andrea's torture? Don't you youngin's ever learn from us adults?" The governor said as Andrea could hear from the opposite side. Andrea knew this was a hopeless situation and began to hear the governor cut Ben's fingertips open as he screamed in excruciating pain.

Andrea knew her only chance to make it out was to move quickly. She found nearby light shining through bent ivory filigree that seemed to be where Ben had crawled in from. She squeezed herself through a very tight and narrow space, and knew that getting over the wall with now one arm would be a tough task. Milton could be seen from a distance and began to wonder if he could be of any help.


	2. You've Got A Friend In Me

The Unknown Empathy

Chapter 2: You've Got A Friend In Me

Andrea now making eye to eye contact with the somewhat distant Milton hollered, "Will you help me Milton, please?" Milton jogging quickly up to her, exclaimed "Oh my goodness, what happened my friend?" as Andrea began to avert her eyes. "Oh no…, did he—" Milton paused staring at Andrea's arm and making a connection to the torture chair that the Governor had shown him the day before.

"Milton, you need to help me out of here—" Andrea paused, and continued "This place is the definition of hell." Milton could see the terror in Andrea's now teary eyes. "Okay I will help you, but we'll have to do it secretly" Milton said with some nervousness in his voice. Milton led Andrea to an enclosed passageway underneath the town's general store trapdoor. This passageway was primary used for evacuation to the towns nearby river in case of an outbreak of war. "Okay Milton, promise me you won't tell anyone I have left" Andrea said. "Don't worry about it, just go" Milton said as Andrea made her way through the trapdoor and down a narrow dilapidated ladder.

Andrea could hear nature's ambiance piercing through the passageway's walls. The anxiety was beginning to surface in her body as the noises seem to be approaching her. A few cockroaches scurried by as she kept a steady walking pace. As she began to approach the ladder that led to the river's surface a voice echoed from the nearby distance "Oh where is my sweet Andrea?" Andrea knew she needed to begin ascending the ladder because that voice sounded all too familiar.

The crystal clear turquoise river awaited her as she made her way out into nature's opening. The sound of the river brought a state of comfort in which the past couple days Andrea hadn't seen. She began to wonder if Woodbury was using this river as a water source. _What if the Governor was nearby? Did Milton tell the Governor she left or was that just some sort of hallucination in the passageway?_

Andrea knew that she needed to begin to be optimistic as her anxiety caused major issues with her needing to be a survivalist. In the distance a few turkey vultures graced the sky, and Andrea could do nothing but smile at this imagery. "Finally, I'm free" Andrea thought to herself. Andrea sat by the river, reminiscing the childhood with her dear sister Amy. The times of happiness of holidays and family events filled her head as the hours pasted by. Night approached very quickly, as locus began swarming over Andrea's head. Disgusted, Andrea knew she needed to find or construct some sort of shelter soon. For now, Andrea laid her head upon the dirt surface as the earthworms did reenactments of the Olympics through her hair.

The next day, Andrea began to make her way into the nearby woods to hopefully find some survivors. After all she found her first group of survivors with Amy. The day seemed to project clear skies, but Andrea wasn't holding out hope for this as she knew rain could come at any moment and slow her down. Andrea picked up her walking pace and made it to an abandoned cabin about two miles from the river, she couldn't believe she'd already walked this far. Andrea approached the front door which barely held its rustic bronze handle. Andrea began to lean against the door to open it. _Creak! _ Andrea began observing the room looking for any signs of ownership. No one was around, only the smell of mildew. Andrea began glancing at the nearby dirt-covered picture frames that held pictures of two figures that she couldn't make out. _Are those the owner of this place? Are they family members or friends? _

**Author's Note: I apologize for the lack of updating folks! I was on two miniature vacations in Ohio and Florida. I am enamored that so many people are reading my story. Thank you.**


	3. Love Brings Tears

The Unknown Empathy

Chapter 3: Love Brings Tears

"Those pictures frames, who do they belong to?" Andrea thought as the distant howling wolves reached a volume of fearfulness. She knew she had to begin her search for who the owner of the cabin could be. Scattering the nearby paperwork, Andrea found a note left wrote in the Latin. She had studied the language in her spare time, and knew whoever left this had an adoration for hunting. Behind the note laid a crystal pendant, with an emerald jewel carved into its center. "Wow this is really weird, is this a female's shelter?" she though to herself contemplating the owner's gender. As dusk began to approach, Andrea began to scurry through the shack's belongings looking for more clues. Outside the sound of the whistling vexatious wind only made Andrea feel worse as now she couldn't hear any oncoming footsteps. _Would the owner return from what seemed to be a hunting trip? _

Eleven hours passed as night turned into dawn, and the nearby riverbank toads sang angelically to the heavens. The wind had begun to subside, and Andrea's alertness was restored. She continued her search for clues, finding nothing but tweed-designed shoes and a twiddled sewing kit. Andrea peeked through the nearby window and saw wildlife gracefully enjoying the forest. _Knock knock Knock.  
_Andrea squeezed herself under the oak table and covered herself with a nearby wool blanket. "Is somebody in there? We heard you from out here making racket!" the voice called out from beyond the door as the knocking continued.

A vibrant white light came piercing through the room as the door swung open. "Where are you? We know you're in here" the voice said walking closer to the table.  
Andrea knew it was someone she had known before, but couldn't distinguish whom it could be. The man was now standing right by her and she could tell he knew someone had been searching his belongings. "Well hell, the person is brave enough to hide after searching through my notes and letters". Andrea uncovered herself, stood up and said "I did it sir". "Oh my gosh your alive Andrea! I could have sworn by now that you'd be eaten by a walker." Daryl said, as Andrea quickly answered "Yeah, I've been tortured by a menace by the name of "The Governor" for a few months, but I've decided to escape. I didn't see any walkers on my way here, yet". With a few moments of silence and hugging, sounds of growling began to approach the cabin. "Speak of the devil" Daryl said as he grabbed his nearby reloaded crossbow.

Merle and Daryl charged at the walkers with a vociferous battle cry, as Andrea stood back to watch the event. Daryl fired his crossbow hitting a walker through the head, as guts began leaking from its once human flesh. "One down, ten to go" Daryl screamed to Merle. Merle motioned a war maneuver that he'd had learned from his father to Daryl. Daryl was taught this from Merle recently on a hunting trip and Daryl got into position. Merle stealthily walked up to the closest walkers and began taunting them. Daryl was trying to remember when he was supposed to shoot and waited for a second for another motion from his brother. Merle shouted to Daryl "Shoot little brother, shoot!" Daryl not realizing his bad aim fired the bolt which pierced through Merle's forehead. "No! Brother! Merle! Merle!" Daryl said rushing to his brother's aid. Tears began to fill Daryl's eyes as the emotion of his mistake began to trigger enormous amounts of sorrow.

Andrea just stared blankly at what just happened. Daryl was kneeling down beside his brother, as the walkers began to approach at a much faster speed then Andrea had expected, and she knew she had to find some sort of weapon so Daryl wasn't next. "Daryl, you need to move! They are right behind you!" Andrea shouted trying to get Daryl to just for a second avert his eyes from his brother's corpse. Daryl turned around to see the monsters about six inches from his location and began running towards Andrea as the walkers threw themselves on top of Merle and began to savage his soulless body.

As night approached quickly and the feelings for his brother didn't leave Daryl, Andrea stared at what appeared to be a hopeless man. With _Don't_ _Let the Sun Go Down On Me_ playing on Daryl's portable jukebox, Andrea knew that she needed to do something to lift the spirits of Daryl. Andrea began to prepare a meal from the squirrel and trout that Daryl and Merle had brought back from their hunting trip earlier that day. Daryl noticed Andrea's kindness and spoke up "Thank you for taking care of me, I'm sorry I've been such a mess-"Andrea quickly interrupted with "No Daryl, I understand. You're going to be okay, you're a strong man."

Dinnertime had arrived and Daryl begin feasting on today's catches that Andrea had mixed together with water to make stew. "Wow Daryl, slow down you're going to burn the roof of your mouth" Andrea said with a grin on her face. "Oh shush, I can take a small burn" Daryl said chuckling. Sounds of nearby crows penetrated through the cabin walls. Candlelight was dwelling down, and so were Andrea and Daryl. "I'm going to bed" Daryl said yawning. "Okay, good night!" Andrea said with a smile on her face.


	4. Dreams and Fascination

The Unknown Empathy

Chapter 4: Dreams and Fascination

So for a second, think of a conjuring moment of a sparrow and a raven conveying a magical friendship. The sparrow has no thought but to sabotage any living insect in sight as the raven, coy and demure, remains quiet watching in discomfort. The sparrow is the hunter, the raven is the watcher. The journeys for these two feathered creatures are bewildering and harsh, but so are Andrea's and Daryl's.

The sunlight of the following morning gleamed through the tarnished silver-paned windows of the Dixon shack. Daryl's emotions began to condescend, and he appeared to be in a more joyful mood. Andrea remained in a very dreamy somnambulant state, as her eyelids remained closed as she lie upon her cot. Daryl began preparing natural tea for him and Andrea as a surprise for when she awoke. Thirty minutes passed and Andrea arose from her cot.

"Hey miss sleepy head!" Daryl said with a smile gracing his face and continued, "I made you some tea" as he handed her a floral tea-filled cup. "Thanks, I can't get over the dream I had—"Andrea said pausing. "What was it?" Daryl said with a bewildered look on his face. "Amy was still alive, but she had really bad bronchial asthma and you were her caretaker" Andrea said with a smile on her face. "Of course I was, you know how wonderful of a man I am" Daryl bragged with a chuckle.

"I'm going to go to the lake and fish some more trout, want to come?" Daryl said offering Andrea a miniature adventure. "No I'll stay here and clean some stuff up, you know how men can be messy!" Andrea said chuckling and Daryl joined in on the laughing. As Daryl left through a field of dandelions, Andrea began her work on cleaning up the now obliterated shack's mess. "Jesus Christ, Men can't clean can they" Andrea thought to herself. As she began finishing up her cleaning she found a diary titled _Daryl's Life: Hell Who Cares? _Andrea opened it and the front page read:

_April 21, 2002- A town a distance away from here is burning to the ground with this infectious disease that spreads. My mother and my father lay in the ground because of those cowards. _

_April 24, 2003- It's been over a year since I wrote in this thing, Merle and I have been fishing trout and smoking cigarettes and just enjoying nature and the act of killing walkers. The cat's are in the Mahogany trees and my hearts in this diary. Okay, maybe I should go to bed now. Goodnight World. _

_April 25, 2003- Good Morning world of infested demons, Merle has been out hunting all day and I am in here writing to all you lovely readers…_

The first page was over; Andrea found the diary very interesting as Daryl never really told too much about his personal life. The next few pages continued similar passages but one small passage stood out to Andrea, it was a poem:

_March 3__rd__, 2005-  
My condolences, my sympathy  
the buried, the rising  
Flames from hell are burning  
Risen from the gates, as angelic eyes watch  
the dead have awoken to eat each one of us._

Andrea heard footsteps approaching the shack from outside and scurried the diary back to its original location. Andrea made her way outside to find Daryl limping and carrying around ten fish. "What happened? Oh my lord, are you okay?" Andrea said with immediate shock. "I'm fine" Daryl said keeping the action to himself. "No, you have to tell me what happened" Andrea remarked. "Listen, I tripped over a log, is that good enough for you? Is anything good enough for you? My brother just died yesterday!" Daryl said as his temper began to rise. "Daryl… Calm down. I just want you to be okay" Andrea said as tears began to fill her eyes. Daryl began walking away from the shack, and in near the entrance stood a distraught Andrea wondering if he'd return.


	5. I'll Be Here Waiting

The Unknown Empathy

Chapter 5: I'll Be Here Waiting

Andrea stood looking into the distant forest waiting for Daryl to arrive back at the now empty shack. Hawks glided through the sky, as the smell of rain began to surface Andrea's nose. Rain wasn't going to enlighten Andrea, Daryl could easily get lost in the rain. _What the hell was he thinking walking away midday?_ _What if a walker sees him and it attracts millions of those creatures towards the shack?_

Walkers were very rarely seen around the shack, as the Dixon brothers would silently kill those that got near. Gunfire was never used for a walker kill and rarely was used for hunting the innocent animals of the forest. Andrea had assumed Daryl had killed the last walkers which were the ones that ate Merle's flesh.

Moonlight began to approach as a cry of despair filled the shack. The footsteps of a Dixon were touching the crunchy leaves of the woods and he had a plan to approach the shack and frighten Andrea. He knew he had to make it as humorous as possible, so he began to use nearby wild berries to make a mask. As he began to approach the shack, the rain began to fall from the heavens and the mask was quickly smearing. "Okay, I got to do this quick" Daryl whispered to himself.

Daryl glanced into the nearby window; Andrea was inside attempting to curl her hair with mahogany twigs. Seeing the blonde so passionate about believing the twigs could actually be used a curling iron made Daryl snicker. Daryl knocked on the window. _KNOCK KNOCK! _Andrea stood startled and shouted, "Is that you Daryl?" as she approached the door. Daryl flung open the door and Andrea screamed in fear. "Oh my God! You scared the living daylights out of me mister!" "Where have you been?" Andrea said in a perplexed manner. "Oh, I've been walking tortuous paths alongside the shack" Daryl remarked with no fear. "I could just smack you" Andrea said with a chuckle.

As night progressed into the day, Daryl and Andrea lay in separated cots and were awoken by a loud bang at the door around what they assumed was seven A.M. "Who is it? What do you want?" Daryl shouted in a choleric tone. _No answer.  
_Daryl grabbed his crossbow and got into his combat stance as Andrea approached the door. Andrea turned the knob, opened the maple door, and there stood a woman gracing a malicious stare and sharpened katana. "Who are you?" Andrea said. "I want you both dead and your belongings, that's who I am" the lady figure said with an imperious tone.

"You can't have either one of those things; you also won't walk into my shack thinking your some omnipotent leader!" Daryl said as his voice began to rise. "Well give me the girl at least" the figure said. "You can't have her, how about we fight for my shack and the girl?" as Daryl proposed an offer. Andrea's eyes widened and was in utter shock that Daryl would even think about handing her over to some strange, belligerent figure. "Okay, we will duel. The winner lives, the loser dies" The voice of the woman said.

Daryl, crossbow in hand, began walking into the nearby dandelion fields preparing for the duel. The lady figure had stood outside the entire time that Daryl had prepared for the duel. She seemed to have been practicing her Chinese arts with her katana and showed some impressive coordination. Before the duel started, Andrea whispered in Daryl's ear "You got this, I believe in you. I will have your back if she tries to kill you". Andrea watched from a somewhat distance, with a revolver in her belt loop.

The duel began and Daryl dodged two mighty swings from the woman. "Wow she's pretty quick with that thing" Daryl thought to himself. The duel was back in forth with Daryl firing an arrow that just graced near the woman's orbturator veins, and the sword swinging two inches in front of Daryl's face. "The cognition of katana fighting maneuvers she is using is superb" Daryl kept saying to himself. The fight had been going on for about to hours when Daryl finally nailed an arrow into the woman's kneecap causing her to descend to the ground. "Okay, you got me. Please just shoot me in the head. My name's Michonne. Please tell my family if they come looking for me that you found me dead." Michonne said. "Michonne, I can't do it. Your just going to live I guess" Daryl said with a smile on his face. "You have to live up to your agreement, shoot me or I'll stab you" Michonne said with a fierce look on her face.

From the distance, Andrea could see something was up. She began to approach the two. "Stay back now!" Daryl shouted at Andrea. "What's wrong? Why haven't you stabbed the son of a bitch" Andrea said extremely pissed off at Daryl. Daryl turned and pointed the crossbow at Andrea. "You know I don't really want to do this Andrea, but if you don't close that mouth of yours at this very minute you will be the one dead" "You would not!" The two bickered at each other.

As Andrea turned to walk away, a loud groan was heard from behind her. The ferocious lady had stabbed Daryl through the abdomen. "Annddree…." Daryl said as he fell to the ground. Andrea now extremely upset, pulled her revolver out and fired at Michonne. The bullets penetrated Michonne's brain lodging themselves into the arteries. Michonne laid dead upon the ground as Andrea ran to Daryl's aid. Andrea began wrapping Daryl's wound but knew she didn't have any medical experience and even Daryl knew this.

"I'm not sure what I can do" Andrea said as the Nile river overflowed from her eyeballs. "You may just have to kill me, shoot me in the head" Daryl said in a pessimistic tone.

As the owls hooted through the lands, two hopeless individuals waited for a sign of salvation to be handed down to them.


	6. The Departure

The Unknown Empathy

Chapter 6: The Departure

Daryl laid bleeding profusely from his abdomen, and Andrea knew that he wouldn't last much longer without some sort of medical herb. Andrea began searching through the miniature Dixon library that contained books such as _The Red Dragon _to _The Anatomy of Humane Bodies. _Andrea obtained a couple of the medical books, and found the necessary steps to begin work on in-home surgery. "Okay Daryl, I'm going to try surgery" Andrea said taking a deep swallow.

The room got silent for about ten minutes until Daryl finally said "No, you got to leave me". "Oh come on Daryl, It'll only sting a little" Andrea said with a grin. Daryl began to roll himself off his cot and crawled towards the door. Andrea began tugging at his feet. "Stop, let go of me!" Daryl said kicking Andrea off of him. The last kick he let off smashed into Andrea's temple knocking her out. Daryl escaped through the door.

Daryl dragged himself, appearing as a severely wounded walker, as he made his way into the woods. Nearby cicadas sang reveries for him as he passed by. Beginning to feel woozy, Daryl picked up his pace but eventually passed out as flies began to swarm the mud covered man.

Andrea awoke with no remembrance of how she passed out; she only knew that Daryl, severely injured, was missing. Boas began swarming the filthy passed out body of Daryl Dixon and slithered over what they thought was a carcass. Andrea grabbed the front door knob, but the knob would not turn. Andrea began kicking the door and bashing it with a nearby candlestick obliterating its existence. Andrea crawled over the bottom pieces of the maple door that still remained.

Daryl's body began to turn an iris color and time was running out, Andrea was still several miles from the passed out body. Andrea began to jog through some tortuous path's that were severely difficult to maneuver and began to wonder if she was going the right way towards Daryl. "There's no way an injured man could of done these paths" she thought to herself. Up ahead she found Daryl lying unresponsive in a wide open field. He seemed to have not moved or spoken in hours and Andrea began to kneel down and sob. Sacrilegious thoughts began flowing through her head. _Why did the bastard god's of this Earth have to take Daryl at such a young age? Hell fire to them all! BURN! BURN! BURN!_

Andrea approached the body of her best friend, her adventurer, her food supplier. She reached down her hand to pat his hair that was now saturated in mud. Andrea knew that there was nothing she could do at this moment and began to load her revolver that still stood in her belt loop with one bullet left. Tears began streaming, Andrea wasn't sure if she could do this.

A poem was heard from the cumuli-filled sky:

_Black ravens joined the tribal ceremony  
the bullet lodged through his brain cells, piercing through the earlobes  
cutting through as blood began to pour from his mouth.  
A friend stands above his post mortem body in agony and misery  
A friend lowers her revolver, in shock of what she had just done._


	7. The End

The Unknown Empathy

Chapter 7: The End

Three days had past since the internal soul of Daryl was taken. Andrea had begun starving herself and refused to use any energy she had to go get water. She had barely made it back to the shack after she shot Daryl; a flock of walkers had heard the gunshot. Andrea laid, her veins bursting as if they were commanding just one ounce of movement. The only food that did remain was the rotten trout that laid in the back of the room, near a quoin in a woven brown basket. Andrea still lying on the shack's floor with no hope of surviving began to hallucinate that Daryl was inside the walls, his pearl eyes shining with deep red glows. She also dreamed of the times she would perambulate through the woods with Amy, no desperation in mind. These good and bad daydreams stopped when a silhouette appeared holding a shotgun that was pointed straight at her. The silhouette screeched "Oh how I've missed you, my darling" _BANG! BANG!_

**Author's Notes:** Thank you everyone for taking the time to read this story, I am working on a new idea as we speak that involves Amy and Andrea. Stay Tuned!


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